


Daddy Lessons

by bluestockng



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Family Feels, Family Issues, Father Figures, Gen, Light Angst, Mild Language, Young Jyn Erso
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-30
Updated: 2017-01-30
Packaged: 2018-09-20 19:45:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9510116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluestockng/pseuds/bluestockng
Summary: "He told me when he's goneHere's what you doWhen trouble comes to townAnd men like me come aroundOh, my daddy said shoot"Galen and Saw taught Jyn many lessons, but they never warned her about falling in love with a man like Cassian Andor.





	

Galen raised her to be a farmer. Always shielding her from the world outside, he never spoke to young Jyn about kyber crystals, weapons, why they fled from the Empire, or any of his clandestine work. He and Lyra had agreed to run and hide away, a frail attempt to steal an ordinary life for their daughter. Jyn, however, was never destined to live an ordinary life. Even if Lyra had not died, even if Galen had not been taken by Krennic, Jyn never could have lived the solitary life on Lah’mu. She would need to live the solitary life elsewhere.  
Galen warned her about the Empire, of course. He asked her if she remembered her earliest days, when the family lived in luxurious comfort and Lyra was so unhappy. “They will use for your ideas, Stardust, and then they will abandon you.” Or, “you think you’re doing good things, important things, changing the galaxy! You lose yourself.”  
Jyn hadn’t really understand any of that. The Empire seemed so distant when she lived on Lah’mu, an imaginary problem that had no real bearing on her life anymore. Her days were spent running freely through the fields, while her evenings were spent sitting in Galen’s lap as he spun stories about the mystical Jedi. The Jedi didn’t really seem possible—“if you can’t kill a Jedi, why are they all gone?” thought little Jyn—but she believed in them because Galen insisted that they were real.  


“Jyn believed everything that Galen ever told her. She was willful, even as a child, but Galen was always able to get her cooperation, even when Lyra failed. Jyn was prone to go exploring before her chores were done. When Galen and Lyra weren’t looking, she’d grab Stormy and head off to the woods, leaving SE-2 to complete her part of the farming. Galen would eventually realize that she was missing and head out after her, half frustrated, half amused at his daughter’s stubbornness. After so many years spent struggling under the thumb of the empire, Galen did not punish Jyn for shirking her responsibilities. Instead, he’d ask for a promise to “be good.” Jyn always sweetly assured him “yes papa” and she always meant it. It just wasn’t in her nature to listen for long.  


““My Stardust. What will I do with you? The fourth time this week? It isn’t fair to SE-2, you know.”  


“But Papa! He _likes_ farming! I don’t!”  


““You’re to be a farmer, Jyn.”  


““Papa, _you_ don’t even like farming!”  


“At the age of six, she first tried to use “the forth willed me to” as an excuse for sneaking out of the house to go exploring. Jyn’s precocious behavior convinced Galen that perfecting kyber synthetics must be easier than raising a daughter. He privately wished that her defiance would prevent her from repeating his mistakes. Jyn didn’t seem like the type to fall into submission easily and at six she could already argue her way out of trouble. Galen always hoped to see her grow up on Lah’mu, shielded from the terrible world he had helped build. Still, he and Saw had built the secret bunker and spent countless hours teaching Jyn how to find its entrances and exits. He wanted her to be a child for as long as possible. In his darkest moments, however, Galen knew that this peace was a stay of execution, not a commutation for time served. Eventually, Krennic would find him. He trusted Saw to care for Jyn and Lyra.  


“Lyra fought him to a standstill. How could he abandon his family? If Krennic found them, they should fight their way out or run. Galen wouldn’t risk Jyn’s safety. “Jyn needs her father!” But Galen didn’t listen. Jyn inherited her stubbornness from him. Eventually Lyra agreed to Galen’s plan: Galen would surrender himself and tell the empire that Lyra was dead. In the meantime, Lyra would take Jyn and run. Lyra, unfortunately, had different plans.

Saw feared that someone in his cadre would discover Jyn’s real identity. He trained her to fight his own men as much as he trained her to fight Stormtroopers. They were guerilla fighters, not disciplined soldiers. Ideologues, criminals, outcasts. He hoped that he could trust all of his cadre, but as the years passed, he ran out of good faith for them. Paranoia and fear crept up on Saw slowly, the only enemies he never saw coming.  


As a young man, the Alliance radicalized Saw Gerrera. When his tactics became too extreme, however, they left him to fight his border wars alone. In later years, Jyn wondered why Saw let himself die on Jedha. Maybe he thought that his cybernetic legs would slow her down. Maybe there wasn’t enough of him left to keep going. Maybe he just wanted to see Steela again. Jyn didn’t realize that he relinquished the best parts of himself when he forced himself to leave her behind.  


By the time he had abandoned her, fear convinced him that every shadow that he passed was a saboteur or assassin hell-bent on killing Jyn. He tried to push her away and send her on missions that would give her the opportunity to escape if she wished. Jyn, ever loyal, always returned. When he finally left her behind on, he had armed her and called her “my child” one final time, promising to return the next morning. Jyn, convinced in the truth of his words and their dire situation, believed him. She always listened to her father, after all. When she crawled out of her bunker the next morning, however, Saw Gerrera and his Partisans did not greet her. She waited three days before she moved on. Jyn vowed to never give anyone three days again. That was, until she met Cassian Andor.

For all their lessons, neither man ever bothered to warn Jyn about men like Cassian Andor. Jyn reflected that a word or two about men might've gone far to prepare her for him. The fact that a single man could propel into her life, completely overtakw it, and turn everything upside down for her, electrified and terrified her in equal measure. Not that Cassian Andor was a bad man. Not exactly. His past had its pitfalls, much of which were still mysteries to her. Jyn Erso knew she couldn't fault him for mistakes made. The ones she did know about, she found within herself to forgive. Her past wasn't exactly spotless either, Galen and Saw had seen to that. 

What, exactly, would her fathers have thought of Cassian Andor? The meeting between Saw and Cassian had been too brief. Cassian had nearly killed Galen. Perhaps it was better they hadn't, she realized. The men she'd love first, who had both abandoned her to save her. Cassian Andor, on the other hand, betrayed her trust, nearly broke her heart, but never left her. Instead, he'd returned to her side in order to help. Running, her natural first instinct, never occurred to Cassian. Unlike the men who had left her in the past, he returned to her of his own volition.

Still, she thought, falling in love was a weakness that Saw Gerrera would not so easily forgive. Love makes you weak, love makes you vulnerable. He'd left her behind because he loved her as a daughter, because he knew that he couldn't continue to protect her. Galen left Jyn behind to keep her out of the hands of the Empire. Cassian Andor, on the other hand, stayed with her as if to say "if we fall down, we fall down together." If love created weakness, why had her love for Cassian allowed her to face with dignity on Scarif? If love meant weakness, why had Saw's dying declaration to "save the dream" affected her so? Saw Gerrera, of course, had lost his sister and then lost Jyn. It was only after his tethers to love had been taken away that he fell into paranoia and suspicion. Galen's love for his daughter shaped the fate of the galaxy. Love, it seemed, created the small flaw inside of the Death Star. Love, though flawed, she supposed, shouldn't be shunned.

**Author's Note:**

> Since seeing Rogue One, I've been intrigued by Jyn's relationships with Galen and Saw and how the choices they made impacted Jyn's character and motivations, particularly in regard to her relationship with Cassian. 
> 
> The lyrics come from Beyonce's "Daddy Lessons"


End file.
